<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Hi Greg…did you see the story on page B-1 in The Record today about the region and developers trying to reach an agreement on how much land can be developed?<div> <br><div><div>On Mar 4, 2015, at 11:20 AM, Gregory C. Michalenko <<a href="mailto:gcmichalenko@uwaterloo.ca">gcmichalenko@uwaterloo.ca</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div fpstyle="1" ocsi="0" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;">I read through the attached blurb. I found it pretty confusing and unfocussed. I'm not sure they have hit on the really important targets. If agreements are out of date (sometimes there are deadlines put on development agreements, and if certain actions are not taken within the specified time, then the agreement is null and void). Or, did they mean "outdated" in a very general sense, projects which are now recognized as dubious because of advances in ecological knowledge or more sophisticated planning, but are "grandfathered" and can still go ahed on that basis.<div><br></div><div>As far as the OMB goes, there was a productive workshop on OMB reform held at the Kitchener Auditorium last year, attended by an encouraging mix of about 80 civil servants, officials, environmentalists and the general public. One main recommendation was that developers should not be allowed to challenge official plans, as happened for Waterloo Region. Perhaps this organization could follow up and find out what the provincial government is doing about these recommendations. We also need to keep the issue of the Waterloo official plan court case before the public's eye. It is not unlikely that one part of the developer and speculator litigants' strategy is to drain the public purse through expensive legal proceedings and force the Region to compromise. They know full well that appealing to the public that "tour tax dollars are being wasted" can be a powerful strategy to get their way. Rather than the symbolic "thumbs up" requested below, the thumbs should be employed to send text message enquiries, or get onto the phone and talk to officials and let our concerns be known.</div><div><br></div><div>Greg Michalenko<br><div><br></div><div> <br><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"><hr tabindex="-1"><div id="divRpF672942" style="direction: ltr;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>All [<a href="mailto:all-bounces@gren.ca">all-bounces@gren.ca</a>] on behalf of Louisette Lanteigne [<a href="mailto:butterflybluelu@rogers.com">butterflybluelu@rogers.com</a>]<br><b>Sent:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tuesday, March 03, 2015 7:41 PM<br><b>To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:all@gren.ca">all@gren.ca</a><br><b>Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[All] Give a quick THUMBS UP to help environment in Ontario<br></font><br></div><div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975"><span class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_3102" style="color: rgb(19, 19, 19); font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">There is a great need to redefine the purpose of the OMB to ensure environmental protection takes precedence over development and aggregates. The out of date agreements need to be overridden/reversed and recognized as human-induced stressors so that we can increase resiliency to our ecosystem.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975"><span class="" style="color: rgb(19, 19, 19); font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;"><br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975" dir="ltr"><span class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_3135" style="color: rgb(19, 19, 19); font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">To make this issue a priority, visit this site and click the Thumbs Up symbol. Votes will be tallied until March 19. </span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975"><a href="https://talk.ontario.ca/climate/idea/increased-protection-and-enforcement-environment" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_3052" target="_blank">https://talk.ontario.ca/climate/idea/increased-protection-and-enforcement-environment</a><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975" class=""><br class=""></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975" class="" dir="ltr">Thanks to Connie Cody and Sue Stubley for this one!</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975" class="" dir="ltr"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425429255493_2975" class="" dir="ltr">Lulu :0)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>All mailing list<br><a href="mailto:All@gren.ca">All@gren.ca</a><br><a href="http://gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/all_gren.ca">http://gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/all_gren.ca</a></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>